3S 
FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
men and boats to kill a whale if they were fortunate 
enough to fall in with one, and spend the spring and 
summer hunting reindeer, bears, walrus, white whales, 
white hares, netting salmon, exploring, etc. The draw- 
back to such sport is apparently the tameness of the reins 
and the meekness of the bears. But as against that there 
is the enormous improvement on home sport, that there 
you shoot and fish for your dinner, which, after all the 
talk of Sport for Sport's sake, is what gives fishing and 
shooting their real zest. A whaling barque could easily 
be bought now for an old song, especially if this Antarctic 
whaling proves a failure. The owners would then part 
with them at any price. There are any number of splendid 
Arctic seamen, old whalers and hunters, ready to be 
engaged, and I know of the very man for master. Then, 
if the ship was lucky and fell in with a whale, all the 
expenses would be paid, and the walruses and seals would 
realise a profit. Five months' sporl^ free-gratis-and-for- 
nothing ! 
Is it not wonderful that people invest in forests and 
chivvy red deer from fence to fence, and pot partridges 
over endless miles of turnips, when up north they could 
kill big game on unnamed mountains, sail up under 
covered fiords, and run great whales on miles of line ! 
To me, a Scot of the proverbial lack-penny type, whose 
natural inheritance of sport was long since advertised by 
Scott and sold to English tradesmen, such a prospect 
appears most powerfully attractive. I am now afraid, 
from all that I have heard, there will be little sport in the 
Antarctic ; but the uncertainty, the possibilities of falling 
